Kimi ga Iru
by freya kurenai
Summary: YAOI. D18. For me, there's only one certainty: when I open my eyes, there you are.


He yawns, under the midafternoon sun, hearing only the sound of rushing water and Hi-bird's chirping. A chuckle, and Hi-bird tweeting almost cheerfully. Another chuckle, the sound of tiny wings flapping. The smile on his lips is not unwanted.

The wind was nice, a breeze that came and went at just the right moments, dancing with the sun that was never too hot. The shadow cast by the tree is refreshing, has always been refreshing, but it is especially so, today.

He turns over, laying his cheek on the soft grass. The chirping and the chuckling continue. It is not noise, it is a pleasing sound, and if the smile on his face widens just so, it is not minded.

"Nee, Kyoya..."

He cracks an eye open--

(_"I'll stay."_)

++++++X++++++

Frowning as the guards tell him that the enemy had back-up waiting, ready to surround them at the snap of an order, the Cloud Guardian narrows his eyes in annoyance. They had not expected this.

The 10th glances at his Guardians, because even after twenty years the man is still soft at heart. They glance back, the herbivores, and he merely whips out his tonfas in a reflex-like manner.

"Remember our objective," a voice pipes up, "To keep Tsuna safe, whatever happens."

A hand claps him on the shoulder. The voice is familiar, and reminds him of chirping little birds and a day spent doing nothing.

"Ready, Kyoya?"

(_"Go, Kyoya."_)

He nods, and--

++++++X++++++

The whip cracks and his eyes are wide, and his hands --_small as they are_-- grip the railings before him. Men in black suits rush to the man with the whip, and an arm cuts his vision, as he is bodily thrown into a car whose seats he has never sat on.

"Kyoya!" (_he hears birds --a bird?-- and water and feels someone's hand on his shoulder_)

More cracks, bang-bang sounds like the ones in the TV that the Tuna-kid is always making him watch, thud's that sound like the thud's when the bad guys in the movie fall--

The door is opened--

(_"Dino-san!"_)

"Kyoya, you're safe--"

_His name is Dino._

++++++X++++++

Children are rushing around the playground, and he is _this_ short of cursing Chrome Dokuro for forgetting the Cavallone's only son, in a _playground_ of all places. He is also very close to cursing the 10th's right hand for telling him to pick the boy up, but he won't because it would kill brain cells, and he needed them if he was going to deal with a child they called the 'Bucking Horse'.

He walks with a gait of one who could (_and on occasion, did_) kill without even looking, and the children cautiously steer clear of his path. Except one boy, one small blonde boy, who has apparently tripped on his way to the monkey bars.

He is wearing a jacket whose hood is lined with fur, and this is how the Vongolia's Cloud Guardian finds the Cavallone's only son and heir.

"Bernardino." he calls, stopping a few steps from the boy, and he gets an odd feeling of deja vu, and smells gunfire and fresh leaves and leather interior in one whiff.

_He sees golden brown, bronze with more gold than normal, a sun seen through tinted glasses._

The boy turns to look at him, and his eyes are a warm brown.

"Kyoya...?" (_it's an awful heartbeat that pumps through his veins and for one instant he __**knows**__ something has gone so horribly wrong_)

Hibari Kyoya blinks and all of a sudden, _the boy is a man with warm honey-brown eyes and an iron grip and lips that he swears are lying--_

++++++X++++++

His left side is throbbing now, as the anesthesia has completely worn off. He feels bandages in three extra places, and curses at his inability to emerge spotless from a simple meeting. Hi-bird is curled up beside him, and he sees with a pang of guilt that the little bird has a little splint on one of it's wings.

Suddenly, he feels another stab of the emotion, and clutches something in his hand.

It is cold and small, it has nothing to do with him, and it is important.

"Dino..."

(_"Kyoya, where are you going?" "There was an explosion." "Dino-san, is he---"_)

The name is like honey on his tongue, but there is no explanation for the tears.

It was **his**.

++++++X++++++

Wine, wine and more wine-- what he wouldn't give for a simple cup of green tea. He cuts a glare at someone at the other end of the hall, and a smirk slides onto his lips when he hears a torrent of excuses flowing from one mouth following the sound of surprised splash.

Venice is sparkling with lights and music, and it is the 10th's nervous laughter that forewarns him of the man who is now walking towards him. And he thought the veranda was a safe place.

"Kyoya, did you miss me?"

An insult on his tongue, his actions the same as many times before, and then,

_Why can't he see his face?_

_Because it's covered in red._

++++++X++++++

_"We need to get Tsuna out of here. We're outnumbered five to one, and they've got the mansion surrounded."_

_The Cavallone head and the 10th's Cloud Guardian exchange a look that could have begun a war._

_"I'll stay. Someone needs to tell those idiot herbivores a lesson." tonfas are whipped out, and his shoes make clicking sounds akin to heels on smoked-glass floors, except that they are far more frightening._

_A hand grabs his arm, and the 10th calls out, "Dino-san!"_

_"Kyoya, your duty as Tsuna's guardian is to protect him. I'll stay."_

_Somehow, that last statement makes him angrier._

_His grip tightens, but his eyes are a different story. "Go, Kyoya."_

_They are halfway through the exit, when the world around them rumbles and shakes and throws them into a rattling spin-cycle. Moments later, it stops, and he ignores the voices in and out of his head, and he turns around, his frown deepening. He takes one step, and the others stop moving._

_"Kyoya, where are you going?" his footsteps have reversed, he is running now, towards the other end of the escape route, towards what remained of the Vongolia's mansion._

_"There was an explosion." he replies shortly, and despite not wanting to think about what could have happened, the 10th reads his actions anyway and says three words he would forever hate._

_"Dino-san, is he---"_

_"I don't know."_

_Or maybe, he's the one who says them._

_The door is jammed and he kicks it with no preamble whatsoever, and when the wreckage comes into sight, he glares at it as if it he could scare it into returning to its original form._

_He walks, and walks, and walks, and if there is an enemy who has somehow avoided the fight and is still slinking about, he strikes them down without a backward glance. The rest of the guardians get the message, and pretty soon no one is asking why he is cantering through the halls of the Vongolia mansion like a man slowly losing his mind._

_(perhaps because he is)_

_And when they arrive there, at the last spot that Kyoya had seen him, and where he still is, they can almost hear a small, keening sound, a sound no one but a woman named Naoko Hibari has ever heard before._

_Dino's cross is lying there, clutched in his hand, and it is small and cold, and it has nothing to do with Hibari Kyoya, but he touches it anyway, and the tears have a reason now._

"Kyoya."

++++++X++++++

--and the older man smiles at him, a bright and sunny smile that prompts him to turn over and receive a small peck on his lips.

"Shouldn't we be going back now?" he asks, though his tone is far too nonchalant for him to actually mean it.

"We will when you sound like you want to leave." he closes his eyes, hears chirping and chuckling, feels a smile on his lips, and thinks, in the deepest corners of his mind, that it would be nice if this dream was real.

He is still smiling when he wakes up.

_And that's why it hurts._

+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+X+

**Author's Notes: **Another one of those 'Dino-dies' spiels. Or is he really dead? ;P But anyway, hello, nice to meet you, this is my first venture into the KHR-fandom, with my OTP, D18. I hope you liked this little ditty, and if you're still confused, I shall now explain to you the mechanics of this fic. :D

AH! But first: **Disclaimer!! I do not own KHR. These characters are not mine, and I do not lay any claim to them whatsoever. **

The last division is the continuation of the 1st division, so Dino and Kyoya (_and Hi-bird_) are still in that place with the tree and the river and the sunlight that's not burning them. Is it really a place? Maybe, if it is, it's a pretty nice place. Is it really a dream? Maybe, Kyoya 'wakes up' after all, but maybe he fell asleep after telling Dino off and maybe they're still in that place. What hurts? We can only dream. O.O oh, shit, that's an actual answer. But seriously, though, I don't know what hurts. Exactly. Erk.

The 2nd division is a dream/illusion/hallucination = It would make sense if it were a dream, as it somehow forewarns you about the italicized division, but its 'reality' isn't all that tangible. And, if it was an illusion/hallucination, it's a pretty 'real' one. But, despite it being in that context of time, it happens directly after the 1st division (_so maybe it is a dream~)._

The 3rd division is (_al_)most certainly a dream = It's Kid!Kyoya being kidnapped by the bad guys (_who, I take it, are after the Tuna-kid, also known as Tsuna_), and then being saved by Dino. Happens DIRECTLY after the 2nd division. I'm sure this isn't real, but it's a nice fantasy, ain't it?

The 4th division is, also, (_al_)most certainly a dream = It's a Reversal of the 3rd division! Yeah! I'm starting to think that (_if the italicized part is a dream_) all these things are dreams within a dream. Or, (_if the italicized part is real_) they are dreams within a rejected reality. Urgh. Anyway, here we have (_maybe_)TYL!Kyoya looking for the Cavallone's only son and heir.

...I'm honestly starting to believe that these things are dreams within a dream/rejected reality.

The 5th division is probably the 'aftermath' = here we have Kyoya waking up (_from WHAT?_) to find himself wounded. The cold, small thing is of course, Dino's cross. Has Dino died in this dream/illusion/hallucination? Or has he left Kyoya? Or is Kyoya regretting the fact that he lost? Or does he have amnesia, that's why 'there is no explanation for the tears'?

...Maybe these things are like my take on the D18 relationship from several viewpoints. Urk.

The 6th division is something that could be real, but it could also be a dream = the starting scene is believable enough, Kyoya and Dino meeting at a party and whatnot. But how does one explain the latter scene? Another 'dream within a dream/rejected reality'?

The 7th division has a strong chance of being real = Is Dino dead? (_it just occurred to me, if Kyoya could 'glare' things back to their original state, we wouldn't need alchemy... or manpower, for that matter XD_) There is a maybe. Naoko Hibari is my name for Kyoya's mom, since I don't know her real name. Who spoke those last, normal-type words? Maybe Dino. Maybe someone else. God, it could even be Hi-bird!

And the eight (_and last_) division is the same as the 1st. Hey, didn't I explain this already? Anyways...

There you have it! I named this little ditty 'Kimi ga Iru' because I was listening to my Morning Madness playlist, and the song 'Kimi ga Iru' by Chemistry started when I was typing. Note, the song did not inspire me. I just thought that it was the one common thing about all these divisions-- Dino & Kyoya are together.

I hope I didn't fail at writing them. Well, Kyoya mostly. :D Please, review! It makes Hi-bird happy.


End file.
